Unlike previous chapters, this chapter is a transitional chapter from multiple POVs and is more like four mini chapters. The first is from Stukov's POV, the second and fourth from Marín's, and the third from the POV of Dauphin. Thanks for reading!


Stukov looked out on the UED fleet from the observation deck of the Aleksander. If he ignored the infestation around him and the enormity of the Destroyer Fleet, he could almost believe it was 2500 again and he was looking out at his own fleet, just arrived from the Sol sector. In the silence, he imagined Gerard standing behind him somewhere in the shadows. In the distance, he saw the Kuznetsov move to the center of the fleet away from its position behind the front lines. Now that the fight for Tarsonis was over, it could fully rejoin the fleet. He was glad to see it unharmed; with his son onboard, he could reasonably believe he was safe, but he had no idea how he was being treated. He wouldn't know unless he could see him and speak to him, but even then they would be smart enough to hurt him in ways that did not show, saving any permanent injury to him for when his father got out of line. The uncertainty gnawed at him, but he knew they would not be foolish enough to let him die.

The Aleksander's adjutant chimed discordantly, alerting Stukov it was about to speak.

"Admiral Stukov," it said, its voice slow with the declining health of the ship's systems and muffled by infestation, "Admiral Reeves of the Kuznetsov wishes to speak with you." Stukov hesitated. He felt a moment of paranoia. Had Reeves perceived that he had been holding back? Had someone seen and reported his interactions with the Umojan and Republic vessels and reported it as suspicious? Most likely he just wanted to debrief him, but the memory of Reeves holding a gun to his son's head haunted him.

Stukov climed the few steps to the upper level of the observation deck to its comm console.

"Patch him through, Adjutant."

As the comm clicked on, he was immediately met with sounds of celebration: cheering, clapping, and the popping of champagne corks. Reeves appeared on the screen standing in the hangar bay. Behind him, a huge party was taking place. His self-satisfied smile made him want to wrap his fist around his neck and squeeze until his head popped off. He swallowed his anger.

"Admiral Reeves, how good of you to call," he said flatly.

"Stukov... I have to say congratulations are in order. You managed to totally annihilate the Republic and Umojan forces without causing significant civilian casualties. That will make our occupation of Tarsonis easier... and make for some great PR reels for the sector and back home."

"Propaganda was not my motive, Admiral... but I'm glad to serve the UED again..." He said cautiously.

"Good. Then once we have commandeered Tarsonis's supply chain and industry, we will need to push on—and quickly. When will you meet with... this Tal'Darim... Alarak? Is that his name?"

"Yes, Alarak. I will meet with him in seventy-two hours."

"That's a bit far out, don't you think?"

"It is what he could manage."

"Very well. When you speak to him, let me know. Good day."

"Wait."

"I want to see my son."

"Why?"

"I want to see that he hasn't been harmed."

"You can see him," Reeves said, his genteel demeanor dropping, "when you've convinced Alarak to join the fleet. So don't fuck it up, Stukov." Reeves abruptly closed the comm channel. Stukov pounded his fist on the comm console, seething in frustration. Reeves would use his son to torment him at every opportunity. But he didn't have time to worry about that now. He had to assume his son was alive and well. With his meeting with an Umojan or Republic fleet representative mere hours away, he was on a tight schedule. If his allies in the Koprulu sector did not assist him or if Alarak refused his offer, his son would be in grave danger. But I will take him back... and if I get the chance, I'll kill Reeves the same way he threatened to kill Gregory.

But there was no time to indulge his violent fantasy. He had a meeting to attend.


"You did what?" Vermaak shouted. Marín flinched, unused to his anger in front of their superiors. Marín had just finished reporting on her pursuit of Stukov to Horner, Valerian, Augustin, Oyaleni, and Vermaak on the Vrede. She told them about his message and why she had ultimately let him go instead of neutralizing him. But she knew that most of it didn't matter to Vermaak—he didn't care that she went after Stukov or why she did, why she let him go, or what he said to her. What mattered to him was that she had put herself in harm's way when she had expressly told him she would not. Augustin sensed that something was wrong and put himself between them.

"I don't believe Admiral Marín needs to repeat herself, Vermaak. Did Stukov give any indication as to why he wanted to meet, Marín?"

"No, but during the battle he seemed to be avoiding attacking evacuees and the building where Horner had been trapped... It may be that he wants to give us intel..."

"Or pull one of our leaders into a trap. He probably thinks Horner or Valerian will come to meet him," Oyaleni said.

"You shouldn't have been there, and you should have shot him down," Vermaak said angrily.

Marín expected as much from Oyaleni. Being suspicious and considering all the ways a situation could go awry was her job as a general and the leader of the marines in both fleets. But Vermaak's reaction was uncalled for.

Valerian raised his hand in a gesture of calm and began to speak. "I... have to say that I agree with Oyaleni and Vermaak. We fought alongside him once, but... more recent events may have turned him against us."

"Such as?" Augustin said. Valerian did not elaborate, color rising in his cheeks. Horner spoke for him.

"It got buried in the report the Umojans released a few years ago, but Valerian's partially responsible for his imprisonment and the uh... experiments that were... not consensually performed on him by Moebius..."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Marín said, speaking out of turn and rubbing both hands down her tired face. "You tortured this guy? Great. That's just... Yeah, I think that does add something of a complication to our interaction with him."

"But if he's reaching out, there has to be something else going on," Horner walked to the war table in the middle of the bridge. "Do you have recordings of the battle?"

"Yes," Augustin said, joining him. With a few taps he brought them up. A holographic image of Tarsonis appeared above the table with red markers denoting the UED and Stukov and green, yellow, and the teal of the Umojan navy denoting their fleet and troop movements. Horner manipulated the image with a wave of his hand, zooming in on Tarsonis City and the Umojan line against Stukov. Valerian stood behind him as Horner watched Stukov's units crawl through the streets of Tarsonis City. Augustin watched as well from the other side. Valerian pointed at the map, saying something only Horner could hear.

"His movements are... slow," Augustin said.

"That's... uncharacteristic," Horner said. "He's normally quick to strike and with the infested he tends to try to overwhelm his foes quickly in an initial push to hide a more complicated late-battle strategy. Here, he was controlled at first and waited to engage us. I think that Marín is right. He was holding back; he must have known I was in there."

"But how would he have?" Vermaak said.

"Well, he is human. The last time I spoke to him he was pretty up on current events. I was slated to be on a widely broadcast debate. The time and place of broadcast had been announced way ahead of time." Marín imagined the human man she had seen in pictures, sitting in an office like hers. His feet were up on the desk and he popped open a beer as he watched the news projected above the desk. A zergling snoozed idly on the floor below him. She tried not to laugh and realized how tired she had to be to think that was funny. It had been a long day, and now the dress she kept forgetting she was wearing was beginning to rub her in places it had not before.

"You'd think the UED would have caught on to that as well," Augustin said.

"Not necessarily. The timing of their arrival may have kept them from hearing about it."

"Right, so let me get this straight," Oyaleni said, clearly getting annoyed. "what we have here is a dangerous, UED, zerg man who was Kerrigan's ally for a time and your ally for all of five seconds and who might still be friendly to Horner but is definitely going to be right pissed about Valerian and who doesn't give a shit about Umoja but he just asked us to send someone—unarmed—to a horrid backwater planet that can only be traversed in a CMC or vehicle because of its turbulent atmosphere and plasma storms and we're still debating sending someone?"

"If he can do for us what he did to Tarsonis, yeah we are," Marín said. Oyaleni rolled her eyes at her.

"Well, I'm not crazy enough for that,"

"I'll do it," Horner said, "He knows me."

"Absolutely not," Augustin said quickly, "You're the leader of the Republic in exile. If Stukov turned on you, it would be a checkmate."

"And you're the leader of the Umojan fleet, and it's highly probable that he would kill me on sight. Marín in the right choice here; he spoke to her, and she should go," Valerian said.

"And I'm willing to go..."

"No, it should be me, but I'm taking a sidearm," Vermaak said darkly.

"And that's why you're not going, Wynand," Augustin said, "We've wasted a lot of time arguing about this... Marín, can you still make the rendezvous?"

"If I leave now."

"Then go... Find out what he wants, and get back here. Keep your CMC's transponder on and for heaven's sake, be careful this time."

And there's still no time to get out of this damn dress.


The after-victory party on the Kuznetsov had been one hell of a celebration. After half a bottle of champagne, Dauphin had lost her cap and KD in the hangar bay. The carousing around her seemed to be happening in slow motion—and someone was pouring more champagne in her glass. There was shouting and loud music; she was thankful that the first of her senses to go when she was drunk was her hearing. Dauphin saw Reeves at the far end of the hangar speaking into the comm unit. The screen was mostly dark, but she recognized the unmistakable glow of Adm. Stukov's amber-colored eyes. Thinking back to her encounter with him gave her chills. She had seen what he could do to the fleet, and she had seen from the air what he could do on the ground. He frightened her, but how he had treated her and what she had seen on his ship made her pity him—and his son.

Reeves abruptly ended his call and moved away from the console towards her. She turned around so that he wouldn't see her face. He walked past without noticing her. Only a few hours earlier, she had stood nearly in the same spot watching him put a gun to a man's head and threaten his life. She would never see Reeves in the same way again. Dauphin thought about Gregory. He was most likely still in the brig alone, not privy to any of the celebrating around him. He also probably had no idea that his father was a large part of their victory. She suddenly didn't feel much like celebrating.

Walking down the hallway to her quarters, she had to dodge people who were much drunker than she was. Once inside, she realized she was not alone. KD was hanging half on and half off her upper bunk, her arm dangling limply off. Below her was a half-empty bottle of vodka whose contents and splashed all over the floor. She recognized the bottle from Stukov's stash from the Aleksander. They had to bribe a flight deck technician to get it back after they had abandoned it in the hangar bay. KD had wanted to leave it, but she felt like she owed it to Greg to keep it for him—especially since everything had gone so awry. Still inebriated, she thought it would be nice if she took some of it to show Greg in the brig. Quietly, she reached under her bunk and dragged the duffel out from under it. The bottles inside clinked softly. KD sat up suddenly in her bunk, her hair askew and her face flushed. A couple of strands of her hair were stuck to her lips.

"Hey! What are you doing with that?"

"I was going to go see Greg."

"No, don't take the booze."

"I'm not taking that. I'm just going to show him his dad's stuff."

"Oh." KD slithered off the top bunk, stumbling in her bare feet as she touched the ground. Tucking in her shirt, she grabbed Dauphin's champagne and downed it quickly. She smoothed back her hair. "Let's go then."

"Uh, I don't recall inviting you."

"Whatever. You need me to distract the guard," KD emptied the duffel bag of liquor except one bottle of vodka. She put two shot glasses in it.

"Why are you bringing that?"

"You'll see."

Outside in the hallway, people were still partying, but it had calmed down a little. They made their way to the brig without being noticed. When they reached the brig, KD gave Dauphin the duffel and took out the bottle and two glasses.

"Wait here ten seconds, then walk right into the cell block."

"Uh, okay?"

The automatic door opened for KD as she walked near it. She hoisted the bottle and the glasses over her head and pranced barefoot inside. A guard was sitting alone at his desk. He looked very bored.

"Hee-e-e-ey, buddy! It's me! KD! Remember me from basic training? No? Well, I thought I'd bring you a drink!"

The guard stood wide-eyed, surprised by her entrance. The door closed behind her, obscuring Dauphin's view.

"Um, thanks?"

Dauphin counted out ten seconds and then went inside. KD had sat down next to the guard, forcing him to turn towards her and away from the cell block door. Dauphin walked quickly past them and into the cell block.

The cell block was large and had multiple hallways. The carrier was like a small city and bad things did happen and people needed to be incarcerated. But today, there were only two people other than Greg in the cell block that she could see, and both appeared to be people who had partied a little too hard and were sleeping it off. Greg was on his own at the very end of the cell block. She wasn't surprised; Reeves had most likely hidden the fact he was here because he didn't want the fleet to know what was going on. Everyone who knew had to agree to not discuss Stukov with anyone at home and to not talk about him on the ship either. There would be too many questions for the fleet to answer if word got home.

When she found Greg, he was sitting in his cell, his arms folded and his head down, leaning forward on his knees. In the harsh light of his white cell in his white ghost uniform and pale skin, he almost blended into the wall.

"Greg," she said quietly. Greg looked up at her slowly. His eyes were red and his eyelids swollen.

"Dauphin... What...?"

"I thought... You might want some company... The battle for Tarsonis is over... Everyone's celebrating."

"Oh."

"Yeah... I, uh... That stuff you asked for... I brought it..."

"What stuff?"

"Your dad's stuff. Thought you might want to see it." Greg looked away, saddened. Dauphin began pulling some of it the items out. "Look, there's this neat sword thing, and his dress uniform..." Greg got up and walked to the far end of the cell away from her. "And that ID you gave me... He put a note on it for you... I wish you could read it..."

"Take it away."

"There's a photograph..."

"Take it away!"

"What's wrong?"

Greg ran his hands through his short-cropped hair, still turned away from her. "I want nothing to do with that... monster."

"You mean your dad or Reeves?"

"That... thing is not my father. My father did not write me a note, he did not let you have that stuff that has been... contaminated by that thing's infestation... And my father didn't try to save me. My father is dead. He died on Char. Whatever that creature is, it is not my father. It is the corpse of my father animated by something... foul." His voice began to crack and the lights in the brig began to flicker in a manner that unsettled Dauphin, "If it were my father, he would rather haveslit his throat than be a traitor!" At the end of another hallway, Dauphin heard the shattering of glass. The overall light in the cell block darkened. "Get out, and take that damn bag with you!" Oh shit, he's telekinetic... and powerful enough to get around his psi dampeners. Dauphin grabbed the bag and ran as glass rained down on her from the ceiling. Dauphin realized both Stukov and Reeves had made a mistake. He may look all of 12, but this kid can take care of himself. And she was even a little frightened of him. Dauphin ran back into the guard's room, but the room was pitch black. Without waiting for KD, she burst through the door and into the light of the hallway.


Admiral Marín locked the visor on the helmet of her CMC as she got ready to disembark the shuttle. She had flown herself down, not wanting to put anyone else at risk. She opened the hatch and the punishing winds on the planet's surface almost knocked her off her feet. She unsteadily walked in her CMC down the gangway, getting used to the suit's blocky movements. It had been years since she had been in one; everyone had to learn to use one as a cadet, but she was more comfortable flying into battle than walking. After a few steps, she was back into the groove of it, even though the loose top layer of the planet's soil made her steps slip and the grit singing past her helmet made visibility poor. She turned on her lights, but that only illuminated the air around her like she was in a dense fog. She turned them off completely and let her eyes adjust to the darkness. On her helmet's HUD, a topographical map guided her through the clouded darkness towards the coordinates the infested terran, Stukov, had given her. Two clicks south, she thought, quickening her pace.

As she neared the coordinates, her radar began to show false positives of life forms above her, behind her, and in front of her. It looked like atmospheric interference, but given what she had learned about Stukov, she was on her guard. But without her weapon, there would be little she could do but run if she encountered a threat here.

Finally, she reached her destination. Sensor ghosts still blipped in and out of existence, but one, fairly close, stayed strong. It was moving slowly towards her, but if it was Stukov he had not tried to communicate. The first she saw of the creature was a burning, orange glow diffusing through the air around it. Was it a hydralisk? she wondered. Has Stukov lured me here just to assassinate me? She turned heel and got ready to run.

The figure stopped, and a low, growling voice somehow cut through the din of the howling wind, "So, I see that you found the courage to meet me." She had never heard his voice before, and was puzzled by his odd way of speaking. "And you are alone, as I instructed. Are you unarmed?"

"Yes," she said, raising her hands, and speaking loudly into her comm. "I gave my word. I would not jeopardize our meeting for my own feelings of safety."

"Good," the voice purred. As the figure moved closer, she realized the glow was psionic, emanating from a pair of baleful-looking eyes—and they were human. The figure of a man—half-zerg, and half-human—appeared from the fog. At his side was a bloated, infested arm as wide as she was. It could easily have palmed her helmet. Dressed all in black, he wore the uniform of their enemy, the UED. Somehow he could walk on the planet's surface without an atmo suit or CMC. Her hands were shaking in her mechanical gloves and a cold fear gripped her chest.

"Do not be afraid," he said, his lips not moving. Of course he's a teep, she thought, glad that she had not taken Vermaak's recommendation and left with a sidearm. He would have known immediately. "Meeting is the easy part." He moved closer, now only an arms breadth away from her, and stopped. "I am Admiral Alexei Stukov, former second in command of the UED expeditionary fleet."

"Admiral Renata Marín, Umojan Protectorate Navy, commander of the Core Fleet and second to Fleet Admiral Thierry Augustin..."

"Pleasure to meet you. And now comes the hard part."

Confused, Marín began to respond, but Stukov pulled a metal object from his jacket and took a step towards her. Out of reflex, she reached for her gun—that wasn't there. Stukov activated the device and electricity arced out of it, striking her suit. It was an EMP device. Her HUD exploded in warnings and went silent. The motor in her suit powered down, and her joints froze. The momentum of her movement caused her to fall flat on her back. As she got her bearings, all she could see was the sky. Stukov's face loomed above her, smirking smugly. What happens now? She thought, Did he just bring me here to infest me after all? Stukov chuckled darkly. His hand manually closed her helmet's blast shield, plunging her into darkness.

"Don't worry. It will all be over soon."